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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Diminished Criminal Responsibility as “New Evidence” in Criminal Revision Procedures
Author(s) -
Rassin Eric,
Boskovic Irena,
Merckelbach Harald
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.13789
Subject(s) - criminal responsibility , diminished responsibility , psychology , commission , criminology , posttraumatic stress , psychiatry , criminal law , political science , law
Posttraumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) may affect victims of crime, but may also be reported by offenders. In the postappeal phase, offenders may claim to suffer from chronic PTSD and argue that this indicates diminished criminal responsibility at the time the index crime was committed. As members of a Dutch criminal cases review commission, we recently encountered two cases in which PTSD was presented as new evidence that would justify a reopening of the case. In this article, we argue that such claims are problematic in that clinical decision making resulting in a PTSD diagnosis adheres to quite different standards than those dictating forensic fact‐finding. The two cases illustrate the difference between criminal and clinical fact‐finding.